Julian Assange: My rape accusers are vengeful

Julian Assange has rounded on the women who have accused him of rape and criticised Swedish prosec­utors for ‘abusing their power’.

Julian Assange: Rape accusers are bitterl

The founder of WikiLeaks said the two women ‘got into a tizzy about whether there was a possibility of sexually transmitted diseases’ after having unprotected sex with him.

It was a ‘ridiculous thing to go to the police about’, he told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.

There was ‘very suggestive evid­ence’ the pair were motivated by rev­enge, money and police pressure, he told a newspaper.

Asked if he was promiscuous, Assange replied: ‘I’m not promisc­uous. I just really like women.’

The 39-year-old, who is out on bail while he fights extradition to Sweden, said the country was becoming a ‘banana republic’.

Sweden’s judicial system ‘had abused its own regulation and its own position to attack an individual’, he added.

Asked by the BBC’s John Humphrys why he refused to go and face his accusers, he replied: ‘I do not need to go and speak to random prosecutors around the world who simply want to have a chat and won’t do it in any other standard way.’

Assange said he had received enormous support as he languished in Wandsworth jail awaiting the outcome of his bail application.

‘I was handed a card by one of my black prison guards. It said: “I only have two heroes in the world: Dr [Martin Luther] King, and you,’ he said. ‘That is representative of 50 per cent of people.’

Assange denies the allegations, which his lawyers say stem from a dispute over ‘consensual but unprot­ected sex’. He has not been charged.